1 86 



THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 





course ; but there 

 is one curious point 

 of difference in the 

 distribution of the 

 eggs, which seems 

 to have no meaning, 

 but may be fraught 

 with much. In the 

 frog it will be re- 

 membered these are 

 laid in great shape- 

 less masses ; in the 

 toad they are shed 

 in a long glassy 

 rope which is 

 twisted about the 

 stems of water- 

 plants. There wzMrf 

 be a meaning, 

 some advantage to 

 the species, behind 

 this, but so far no 

 one seems to have 

 had the curiosity to 

 search out the 

 meaning of the 

 riddle. 



For the sake of 



what is to foUow a 



brief outUne must 



now be given of the early stages in the life-history of the 



newt, which may be taken to represent the normal sequence 



of events in the development of those more lowly relatives 



STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEWT. 



A and B show two very early phases before the 

 body has begun to assume its final shape, and 

 C D E show the " balancer," tlie beguming of the 

 external gills, and the little buds which answer to 

 the undeveloped fore-limbs. 



